top plastic brace

[shipwrecked]

Is it possible to remove (in one peice) the top plastic brace on a 125 gal?? And if no,can the top be bought from somewhere,I have this idea,and it would work if I can remove the top,so the braces won't be in the way to work inside the tank,of course the tank will be empty when I attempt this,thanks for the help/info

 

[njstillwell]

Tony ... that top brace is very important in holding the glass in place but if you take it off and add a new type of brace make sure you know whats going on cause you can break the glass pretty easy at the top edges...

 

[duijver]

You could also remove the brace and build / buy a EURO brace retro kit. Euro braces are normally clear glass and the center brace is gone.

 

[Henrye718]

Hi tony,

You can removed the top brace but most likly not in once piece without alot of damage IE: gouge marks, tool prying marks, etc. The silicone bond is stronger than the plastic brace so it will crack or give somewhere. If you are lucky you may able sneak a razor deeply inbetween the glass and the brace and cut most of the bond inside and out. That might weeken the silicone bond enough to pry the brace off and salvage it. You can buy the brace from any retailer that deals with royal for a perfecto brand brace. I paid $30 for a brace for a 120 gal.

Good luck...

 

[TanksNStuff]

Well, speaking from experience... you can remove the top (and bottom) frames from an AGA tank. I recently did it with a 135g tank because the bottom glass panel cracked and I figured I would just take the thing apart. I was mainly looking to make storage easier in my garage, but also figured that someone might need a replacement frame somewhere down the road.

I must warn you that it was very difficult to take the frame off because they are very well put together (at least mine was.)

Not sure if your intention was to take the frame off to modify it and then put it back on, or if you are looking to take it off to use it for something else? If you need a frame for something or if you just want to know how it is designed, I can help you with that. Maybe this will help you figure out how to take yours apart.

I don't know the dimensions of your tank, but my frames have an inside dimension of 72" x 18". So if you used them to make your own tank, the outside dimension of your glass would be 72" x 18" so that the outside edges of your walls would fit snug inside the channel in the plastic. The channel itself is 1/2" wide and 3/8" deep all the way around (slightly oversized to allow for silicone.) The total frame depth is 1-3/4" where it overlaps the outside wall of your tank and 3/8" deep on the inside.

They put silicone all along the 1-3/4" deep edge... so that was a PITA to separate from the 72" long walls! They put silicone inside the channel, so even when you separate the frame from the wall glass, you can't easily pull the glass out of the frame! They also put silicone on the inside edges of the tank walls as well. They put silicone anywhere and everywhere the glass would touch either another piece of glass or a part of the frame.

OK, here is how I took mine apart. First thing was obviously to take a razor blade and cut the silicone away completely. Even the smallest strand of silicone can make it hard to get apart. So, I started with the silicone on the inside of the walls (vertically) and sort of cut straight down the middle of a bead, then cut alongside the glass to "V" it out. I thought this might be enough to just push the side walls inward and then pull the frame off. But, since the top frame had the glass wedged all the way up inside the 3/8" deep channel, the plastic wouldnt' let me push it in. The only way to get the top frame off is to separate the silicone on the inside edges and the outside edges (between frame and glass), then use a screwdriver or something similar to act like a crow bar and slowly pull the plastic frame away from the glass to break the silicone all the way around... and then lift it straight up. Either that or just break the glass and wiggle the pieces out of the channel.

Since my bottom glass panel was cracked, I proceeded to just keep breaking off small pieces and then carefully wiggling the pieces out from under the side walls. Basically, I just kept hammering the middle sections out and then worked my way towards each edge. One thing to note: They placed the bottom glass panel first in the bottom frame (covering the 3/8" deep channels) and then built the walls on top of it. This made it impossible to remove the bottom frame and/or bottom glass panel without taking the entire tank apart. I was unable to cut away the silicone under the bottom glass (stuck to the frame and cross braces) because I could not access it. If you plan on doing this while keeping the bottom glass whole and intact... good luck!

Here are a few pics of the frame by itself:

Full length frame, inside view (That's the short side glass standing in the bottom corner... wedged in the channel)-

Corner -

Middle Crossbar -

Well, I hope that was educational to someone, hehe. If you have any questions about taking it apart or want more pics, or even if you want to give me a few bucks for the frames or glass (I have top and bottom, along with all the glass except bottom panel and one short side is drilled for bulkheads)... let me know.

 

[TanksNStuff]

One more thing I thought I should mention. Top and bottom plastic frames are identical and interchangeable if you were to make a tank from them so it doesn't matter which is top or bottom. Therefore, you could turn one tank frame set into two separate tanks if you had another method to brace the top.